From molecules to stars, much of the cosmic canvas
can be painted in brushstrokes of primary color: the
protons, neutrons, and electrons we know so well. But
for meticulous detail, we have to dip into exotic
hues--leptons, mesons, hadrons, quarks. Bringing
particle physics to life as few authors can, Jeremy
Bernstein here unveils nature in all its subatomic
splendor. In this graceful account, Bernstein guides us
through high-energy physics from the early twentieth
century to the present, including such highlights as the
newly discovered Higgs boson. Beginning with Ernest
Rutherford's 1911 explanation of the nucleus, a model of
atomic structure emerged that sufficed until the 1930s,
when new particles began to be theorized and
experimentally confirmed. In the postwar period, the
subatomic world exploded in a blaze of unexpected
findings leading to the theory of the quark, in all its
strange and charmed variations. An eyewitness to
developments at Harvard University and the Institute for
Advanced Study in Princeton, Bernstein laces his story
with piquant anecdotes of such luminaries as Wolfgang
Pauli, Murray Gell-Mann, and Sheldon Glashow. Surveying
the dizzying landscape of contemporary physics,
Bernstein remains optimistic about our ability to
comprehend the secrets of the cosmos--even as its
mysteries deepen. We now know that over eighty percent
of the universe consists of matter we have never
identified or detected. A Palette of Particles draws
readers into the excitement of a field where the more we
discover, the less we seem to know. |
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